[Sca-cooks] Reprint of Sallets, Humbles etc.

[Kirrily Robert]

In lists.sca.sca-cooks, you wrote:
>I just checked AddAll and found it listed at Amazon for $16.55,
>including postage.  The Amazon web page stated that it will be published
>in February, 2002, and you can pre-order it, to be shipped when it comes
>in.

*sigh*, and I just bought a copy second-hand a few months ago, with
considerable difficulty.  Oh well.

My review of this book: IMHO, it's pretty lightweight.  Doesn't have
many recipes, and the ones it does have don't jump out at me and go
"wow, I want to cook that".

If you can find a copy, I prefer Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, which
comes with modern redactions by one of her descendents.  The only
downside to this one is that it presents the recipes in the order of the
months of the year, as "this is what they would have cooked in June".
Odd, but not a big deal, as the index is quite good.

But really, recipes from that period are *really* easy to redact for
yourself.  Pretty much anyone on this list should be able to manage it.
If you don't believe me, here's one chosen more or less at random from
"The Good Huswife's Iewell" (1596):

To make all maner of fruit Tartes

You must boyle your fruite, whether it be apple, cherrie, peach, damson,
peare, Mulberie, or codling, in faire water, and when they be boyled
inough, put them into a bowle, and bruse them with a ladle, and when
they be colde, straine them, and put in red wine or Claret wine, and so
season it with suger, sinamon and ginger.

There's lots of this stuff available on the WWW.  In fact I'm currently
working on transcribing the aforementioned Good Huswife's Iewell and am
about halfway through it, and you can find what I've done so far under
http://infotrope.net/sca/texts/ if you're interested.

If you're going to get just one book on 16th century English food, I
actually recommend Peter Brears' "All the King's Cooks", because it
gives you lots and lots of background and just a few recipes, but
recipes are easier to find elsewhere than background is.

K.

--
Lady Katherine Robillard  (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net  http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
"The rose is red, the leaves are grene, God save Elizabeth our Queene"